just fine ooh ♪ ♪ something's watchin' over me ooh ♪ ♪ ♪ something's watchin' over me like sweet serendipity ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> jay: lee dewyze. nice job, buddy. good to see you again. i want to thank my guests. dave salmoni, of course, chris pine and lee dewyze. tomorrow night, david spade and christine o'donnell. "jimmy fallon" happening right now. this morning on "early today," royal details. the future king of england wastes no time talking wedding plans. a dui suspect crashes his car twice after being pulled over by police. and pretty in pink. a nearly 25 carat rare pink diamond fetches a record price at auction. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

hello and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation. including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with a wedding in the works. in less than a year, england's prince william and his longtime girlfriend will finally have their fairy tale ending. in their first interview since the royal announcement, we are learning new details of his engagement to kate middleton, including how william made sure his late mother, princess diana, didn't miss out, by giving kate her 18 carat diamond and sapphire diamond ring. we go to todd bradby's interview. >> reporter: they were nervous. welcome wasn't particularly before and after the interview. chatting with them both, he was laughing and joking. it has to be said, you both look incredibly happy and relaxed? >> we are. we're like ducks. very calm. no, it's really exciting. we've been talking for it a long

time. for us, it's a real relief. especially the last two, three weeks. quite difficult keeping it to ourselves. >> reporter: i think kate was nervous but composed and did the whole thing with relative good humor. there's a story that guess around that you had a picture of him on your wall. >> i had the levis guy on my wall, not a picture of william. >> reporter: everyone's going to remember they have been planning for this for months. all their friends, everyone knows this has been coming for a long time. most get they were engaged in kenya some time ago. they've been preparing for this moment. they knew it was coming. aware of the wave of attention coming their way from all over the world? yes, probably, but does that mean they'll find it easy to deal with? that's a very, very different thing. so we'll just have to see. for nbc news, i'm todd bradby in

london. back here at home -- president obama sufficieered a potentially serious setback in his push for the nuclear arms treaty with russia. tracie potts has details on that and the latest on charles rangel's ethics probe. >> reporter: good morning. let's start with the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. this was a big priority for the white house to get it ratified. preferably during this lame duck session of congress ending in a few weeks but now the top republican, jon kyl has said it is very unlikely that this congress will be able to get the 67 votes to get this done, because they're dealing with so many other issues like the bush tax cuts and because of the complex issues involved and because they're really on such a short time frame. just a few weeks of work left. president obama was scheduled to meet with democratic and republican leaders from the hill this week, but now because of scheduling problems, that has been postponed and the other big story here on capitol hill today, charlie rangel, convicted

now by an ethics panel of 11 of 13 violations he was accused of. most of them financial misconduct, an ethics panel will decide his fate on thursday. rangel says that he is really disappointed with their decision. lynn? >> tracie potts in washington. tracie, thank you. now here's a look at other stories making news early today in america -- in california, suspected drunk driver hardly kept it together when pulled over by police. the driver got out of his car but apparently left it in reverse. so the car slammed into the front of a patrol vehicle, but it got worse. the driver got back in the car, sped off and then crashed. the man was krafted on suspicion of dui. and a suspect dead after leading police on a high-speed chase which quickly ended when he charged through an intersection and was t-boned by another car. police say the man robbed a convenience store then stole a customer's car. the other driver was treated for

non-life-threatening injuries. an explosion at a pennsylvania lumber mill sent firefighters scrambling. firefighters caught off guard when a 55 pound oil tank exploded sending a huge fireball into the sky. no one injured. the cause of the explosion is under investigation. in florida, investigating an emergency landing that left a small plane belly up in the middle of a field. he lost control of the plane and flipped over as he hit the ground. no passengers onboard and the pilot seems to be just fine. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc's bill karins with the weather forecast. hope it's better on the west coast than the east. >> a little bit. the new england area and northwest, bad spots. it's two big storms out there. one heading through new england and a big one actually moving

into british columbia but close enough to washington state, that's where the worst of the weather will be today, up in the northwest. you can see a better look of the storm. all the bright white clouds, snow flying in montana from this snowstorm system. the rain is now just beginning to increase as the frontal system begins to move through washington state. it's going to be a typical storm with gusty winds, heavy snow possible in the cascades. above 4,000 feet. lower elevations where the cities and people live, plain old rain. you can see the green on the map is the rain now increasing down by olympia. you can see in the cascades, the first batch of heavy snow now moving in. near mount hood, actually. shower activity you can see additional moisture under our logo there. we continue to watch the storm system slowly moving in. eventually the rainfall down into portland. dry today. medford and boise, tomorrow is when the storm brings moisture your way. a little cooler in vegas and san francisco, but still nice in phoenix, san diego and dallas.

a look storm system with cool a moving in, seattle only in the 40s. as i mentioned, the rain's moving down the coast. we'll talk more about that later in the show. >> thanks, bill. coming up, foreign battered stocks, gm prepared for a big sale and tweeting your way to a better education. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, once again voters at home brought low-scoring bristol palin into the dancing competitions next round. and first of the season in college hoops. happy halladay from philadelphia. you're watching "early today."

good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning -- defected arms dealer viktor bout will face terrorism charges after being extradited from thailand. the 43-year-old who has been dubbed the merchant of death is accused of trafficking weapons to conflict zones in africa, south america and the middle east. the cholera epidemic haiti is spreading across the border with one case confirmed in dominican republic. since the disease broke out nearly a month ago, it's sparked riots and claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people. >> the head of the transportation securities administration has a message for those vowing to opt out of security measures, including full body scans and intimate pat

downs telling travels if they do, they won't fly. appearing before a congressional committee yesterday, the tsa head urged the public to become "partners in the fight against terrorism." lisa murkowski appears to be taking a lead over joe miller. still miller's campaign says he is interested in requesting a recount. and a rare pink diamond has smashed the world record for a jewel sold at auction. a london gemstone dealer bought the nearly 25 carat diamond for $46 million. nearly double the previous record. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opened at 11,023 after tumbling 178 points yesterday. the s&p lost 19 points. taking a look at overseas, the

nikkei rose 15 points but in tokyo, the hang seng dropped 478. global economic growth sent the markets tumbling yesterday overseas triggering a train reaction that took a toll on markets. chinese shares were lower, which set off the global trend yesterday. beijing is currently readying a plan to reign in the rapid cost of living. this has investors worrying about global demand. in europe, financial leaders will head to ireland to try to figure out if that country is in need of a bailout to stabilize its batterrd banking system. the fallout was swift and sweeping. materials were among the hardest hit while worries of a possible dip in china's demand sent the price of commodities tumbling. energy stocks followed the trend. exxon-mobil dropped 2% as the price of crude settled 3% lower. upbeat earnings from

walmart did little to allay fears but they still managed to eke out gains from its healthy report. the company that makes the popular controversial caffeinated beverage four locko will remove all the caffeine from all of its products. the move comes in the wake of safety concerns raised by a number of states and a probe by the food and drug administration. general motors expected to stock its option in what could be the largest ipo in history. finally, twitter may have its critics but tweeting does pay off. kfc is offering a $20,000 scholarship to the high schooler with the best tweet. according to a new study, students who use twitter for schoolwork earned a higher gpa than those who didn't. so there you go. coming up, uconn is streaking. a blue devil makes it look easy and this time the butler didn't do it. plus, the denver nuggets had

to use creativity last night to keep a pesky new york team at bay. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. a strong storm system is bringing severe weather and gusting winds to much of the east coast today. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." 3q

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good morning. if you're just waking up this is "early today." in sports, the struggling new york knicks saw firsthand last night what denver's carmelo anthony could bring to their team if a long rumored trade ever comes off. here's nbc's fred roggin with a look at all of your sports headlines. >> good morning. the denver nuggets' carmelo anthony will likely be traded sometime this season. knicks fanned loved to see that combo and they'd love this. anthony had a game high 26. final seconds, down three. inbound pass out of bounds. off his hands and out of bounds. ouch. nuggets held on to win 120-118. now to milwaukee -- kobe bryant had 31 but it was shannon brown who stole the show. four three pointers in the fourth. lakers snapped the two game skid, 118-107. off to d.c. a sprained ankle has him sitting

out. wizards beat the raptors 101-94. baseball. roy halladay was the winner of the cy young award, the fifth player to win the award in both leagues. college basketball. ladies' first. uconn continued the winning streak by beating baylor. shot at the buzzer but the three was way short. uconn rallied to win their 80th straight, 65-64. to the men. butler was upset by louisville. defense led to offense all game long. the block by mike mirra. knocked down the three. louisville won it 88-73. and finally -- maybe this is why duke beat butler in the title game. that's shooting the ball from anywhere and everywhere. then he took it to another level. literally. it's a bound shot from the rafters. with shooting like that it's no

surprise that duke routed miami of ohio last night. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. >> what? well, redford and streisand together again, thanks to oprah. and when this man saw what was happening in afghanistan, he leapt into action without any regard for his own safety. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this wednesday. rainy conditions up there in the northwest, seattle, portland, everywhere in between. good sized storm coming onshore. high elviss paking up snow, especially the olympics and cascades. california, cooler from sacramento to san francisco. the desert southwest, two decent days in a row. highness the 70s. morning's cool, afternoons beautiful. improving weather for new salt lake city. thursday the rain inches down the coast. a gloomy weather pattern up in the northwest until at least friday. if you're watching us on ktvz, news channel 21 in bend, oregon, feast your eyes on contemporary paintings depicting central landscape of oregon. high and dry at the mockingbird gallery. that's your pacific event of the day. >> bill, thanks so much. here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. hollywood's in shock this morning after a respected

hollywood publicist was gunned down leaving a movie premiere. ronni chasen shot and killed in her mercedes-benz. police have no motive. the mystery deepened late whir police seized computers from her firm. elsewhere, on a lighter note, oprah winfrey reunited robert redford and barbra streisand yesterday, stars of the early '70s hit "the way we were." redford surprised streisand for their first interview together, which he joked he'd never done before, because he thought "i never thought i'd get a word in." probably so true. and "dancing with the stars," high scoring brandy and her partner were sent home, much to the shock of the show's audience and competitors. despite finishing last, according to judges' scores for the third straight week, bristol palin and her partner advanced to the show's final, thanks to the home audience vote. and it's all abuzz over

this. >> people are upset. they feel like -- they were dancing themselves i. know. they just feel like they've been wronged, but, you know, it's people at home are voting for her. so -- >> that's what happened when you open up voting to the public. >> interesting final, i think. this comes to us from our nation's capital where the president honored the first living medal of honor recipient since the vietnam war. army staff sergeant salvatore giunta received the country's highest military award for heroic action in 2007 when he risked his life to save mortally wounded comrades during the ambush in afghanistan. he braved enemy fire reaching one soldier after another, even rescuing one from the grip of insurgents. giunta said he would give back his med until a second to have his fallen friends back with him. i'm lynn berry, and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station.

in terms of world recognition, one dance made the cut. the united nations has added peru's traditional scissors dance to the heritage list. showing off impressive moves. the ritual dates back 500 years to the colonial days. some of the other traditions honored were flamenco dance and french cuisine. there will be new characteristics in the macy's

84th annual thanksgiving day parade. seven new floats have been added to the popular event. among some of the new rolling displays are dora the explorer float and a replica of mount rushmore. also including a float dedicated to giant baked goods. i bet you never thought you would hear this. a chimp is going cold turkey. you may recall omega, he astonished crowds at a zoo in lebanon. the show outraged people taking him to a rehab center in brazil. now he's giving up the butts and learning some healthy habits. chewing on lettuce leaves. >> you can't teach an old dog a new trick but you can teach -- >> a chimp new tricks. yeah nap joke was going nowhere fast. i'm glad we ended that when we could. it's time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc -- at the white house, president obama will award the national

medal of science and medal of technology innovation. the highest honors bestowed by the u.s. government bestowed on scientists, engineers and inventors. >> in new york, winners of this year's book awards will be announced. 20 categories in the categories of fiction, nonfiction and poetry and young peemg's literature have made it to the final round. treat yourself to take free show tonight, meteor shower peaks this season. 15 to 20 are expected an hour. all day long stay ton top of the latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. tonight be sure to watch brian williams with "nbc nightly news." finally, coming up this morning on the "today" show -- natalie morales has the latest details on prince william's engagement and his bride to be. and keith urban heats up studio 1a with a life performance. keep it right here for

weather, sports and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today." just your first stop of the day, today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ yummy, yummy, yummy, i♪ and i feel like... ♪ [ female announcer ] kellogg's® wants to make kids happy one tummy at a time. because 9 out of 10 kids don't get the fiber they need,